I blogged earlier about buyers looking at a house many times before submitting an offer, and I wanted to go into further detail about the listing situation of that same house.
Some "friends" of mine put their house on the market about 8-9 months ago. We talked about the house, the work needed, the updates needed, and of course, the price.
Updates and price were way out in opposite left fields.
They put in some brand new, nice hardwood floors and kitchen counters. However, that was it. They didn't and wouldn't change the appliances and they were original from the 70's. They also didn't update any of the hardware like door knobs or cabinet pulls. The house was very "dated" and brown!
Before they did the floor and counters, I had suggested selling it "as is" so the buyers could come in and update things themselves, but that it would not be the best idea to update one or two things in this price range when the entire house needs updating, especially with the leopard print counters they chose.
They decided not to listen and do the two updates.
Then, it was time to put the house on the market. I didn't list it. Price was too high. I referred them to someone else who might work with them. He didn't work with them either.
My "friends" chose a new agent to list their home. Why? "With him being a new agent, he needs the money more than the other guy, so we think he'll do more to sell our home quickly!"
HUH?
First, they want to over price by about $100k. Second, they want to use a new agent who has no idea how to market their home in order to get anywhere near their over priced amount?
An appraisal said they could get around $550k. So instead of pricing it near that, they priced it at $650k in order to have negotiating room. Then, price reduction to $585k. Then reduction to $550k. Then, a certain brokerage who had this listing, did a "silly" nationwide price reduction on all their listings and this was reduced to $470k.
Now, it was on the market for over 6 months. Even though it's now priced well below the appraised value and below the tax assessed value by thousands, it's still sitting there because now it looks bad with an original asking price so high.
After another couple of months at $470k, priced aggressively, they get an offer at $430k. Thinking it would be easy to negotiate them up because the buyers have to know how low the house is already priced, they counter. This goes back and forth 6 times!
Final agreed upon price is $440k. Why? Because the sellers showed they were desperate to dump the property after so many months and so many price adjustments starting out way above any realistic number imaginable. They might as well have just gift-wrapped the house and given it away over the Holidays!
Sellers, look at why you're selling. Is it to just get the highest possible price you can no matter how long it takes though your net number continues to decrease each day, week, and month you're on the market? Or, is your goal to knock out the waiting period, and get to your net number as quickly as possible?
REALTORS® are interviewing you more than you're interviewing us. We don't want to spend our time and energy marketing a home that isn't going to sell as quickly as possible. Think about that before your next REALTOR® interview.
